Next up was the Hafragilsfoss waterfall.   This one was kind of interesting in that you could see the waterfall from the top of a deep gorge called Jökulsárgljúfur canyon.   The waterfall is from the glacier river Jökulsá á Fjöllum.   What was interesting was to see two distinctly different landscapes.   Before the waterfall, the river flowed through a flat grassy plain.   At the bottom, the canyon had very deep cliffs on either side, as if the land simply fell away at some point in history.   The canyon is much too deep to just be simple erosion from the fast-moving water.   Further upstream you come to the massive Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe.   As mentioned above, both waterfalls are fed by the glacier river Jökulsá á Fjöllum , and it flows from the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull.   The road to the two waterfalls was 15 miles of bumpy dirt roads in and out.   It was filled with potholes and washboards, as it seemed were most of the roads I tra

Most of Iceland was petty remote.   What was odd, was the occasional church, sitting out in the middle of nowhere; not another building or settlement within a few hours drive.     A bit more on trolls and elves, since you see mention of them a lot.   Right next to the puffins in every tourist shop, you will find an assortment of trolls and elves.   This is from www.icelandtravel.is which is where I gathered most of the details in this blog:   “According to Icelandic folklore trolls live in the mountains and only came down from them to forage for food. Trolls can only survive in the darkness of night and if they were caught in the sunlight they would immediately turn to stone. The best-known, and perhaps most feared troll in Icelandic folklore is without a doubt Gryla. Gryla is the mother of all thirteen Santa Clauses and she is known to eat naughty children, which is why all Icelandic children are exceptionally well-behaved in December.” Allegedly 80% of Iceland’s populatio

I spent my first few days in Iceland in Reykjavik. I was told about 2/3 rd of the country’s population live in and around the capital city, and after seeing the rest of the country, I can see why. Most regions were very sparsely populated, except for a few farms and fishing villages. The only areas with any real size seemed to derive most of their business from tourism; whale watching boats or guided glacier tours and the like.   I found a studio apartment in the city center called Apartment K.   5 days here set me back $677, so like everyone says, Iceland is VERY expensive.   While I could have gotten a hotel room for a bit less, by the time I added in 3 meals, it would have been a lot more than $135 a night. Lunch at a low-end restaurant cost about $20 a meal.   These are restaurants where anywhere else in Europe you would pay $5-10.   I might add, I saw no chain restaurants until I was on my way to the airport, so they are definitely not places the Icelandic people want tour